The big mistake I made selling my first business

The first business I sold was a strange one. In fact, most people wouldn't even consider it a "real" business. I know my parents didn't at the time. And, the guy that bought the business was forced to close down the main product being sold just a couple months after he bought it from me. You'd think he'd have been mad but he wasn't phased at all. He was completely happy with the deal and at the time I didn't fully understand why. I didn't understand the full value of an owning a list. Here's a bit more of the story: One of the first "real" businesses I owned was a tiny internet publishing company. We (aka me) had 1 product. It was an ebook that showed hard-core James Bond fans clever real-life ways to live like their fictional hero, 007. It was strange, yes. Do my close friends from back home still make fun of me for having that business? Yes. When I sold the first pre-sale copy of the ebook even I was surprised. When I started selling a bunch of them I was kinda mad that it was working, hah. One thing I did right with that business from the very beginning was to build a prospect's email list and a customer's email list. Again, I had no real idea at the time what I was doing. I was traveling around the world trying to pay all my bills which were minuscule in South East Asia and in Mexico. The ebook kept selling pretty well and I kept accumulating names on my email list. Without really realizing it I was building an asset. Email lists are assets. When you have a list, you have a business. And I've been talking about this a lot but you really only need about 500 people on a list in order to have a successful business that covers your bills. Anyway, eventually I caught on that there were other ways to monetize this list that I had. So I started doing affiliate marketing and that worked too. Even then I didn't grasp what I had on my hands. I thought I was selling ebooks. I was actually running the world's simplest business... I was managing a list. So when I was presented with an opportunity to work with a friend on a larger startup publishing company, I jumped ship. I decided to sell the business. I listed it and was immediately flooded with offers. "Woah, what's going on here?" is what I should have said to myself. Instead I sold it to a Dutch guy who was a big James Bond fan. Well... you can probably guess what happened next. The owners of the 007 and James Bond copyrights eventually came knocking... mere months after I sold. I'd been careful to try not to use trademarks or copyrights. I always felt that the ebook was more like an article I'd seen from Tim Ferriss on how to become a modern day Jason Bourne. Not taking from the brand, but pumping it up with a unique work of art. Plus, I had a few different competitors selling similar books. But I think the new owner put in some pictures from the movies and that made it seem like the materials were licensed. So a cease and desist letter was issued and the buyer decided to shut it down. I was worried he'd be mad at me but he didn't care one bit. By that point he had a valuable asset: a customer list of proven buyers. Many of them older and with disposable income. James Bond was just a hobby interest for most of those guys. The buyer shut down the ebook but continued to promote other products to the list. In retrospect, I regret selling the business for so cheap! It's something people just starting out don't realize... The money is in the list. When you have a list, you have the simplest business known to man. The lesson is simple too: 1. Build a list. 2. Find out what they want to learn and to buy. 3. Put those things in front of them. This was even further cemented for me when I started CopyHour... another list-driven business that began almost by accident. I'll tell some more of that story tomorrow. Cheers! - Derek Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( CopyHour.com, 340 S LEMON AVE, 5007, WALNUT, CA 91789, USA